Proving that Intel isn't the only player in x86-based Windows "ultrathin" notebooks, AMD this morning introduced its new E-series of accelerated processing units (APUs), known as Brazos 2.0. It showed off systems running both this processor and the recently announced second generation of its A-series processors, known as Trinity.

Proving that Intel isn't the only player in x86-based Windows "ultrathin" notebooks, AMD this morning introduced its new E-series of accelerated processing units (APUs), known as Brazos 2.0. It showed off systems running both this processor and the recently announced second generation of its A-series processors, known as Trinity.

President of AMD Greater China David Tang opened the Computex press conference by talking about the importance of Taiwan as an ecosystem for building computers and the huge Chinese market, highlighting a number of its system partners.

Lisa Su, AMD's general manager of global business units, talked about three big trends: The consumer is in control, this is the age of acceleration (meaning the company's APU strategy of combining graphics and processors), and the expanding ecosystem including AMD and its partners in the hardware, computer assembly, and software industry.

Above: Lisa Su, AMD's general manager of global business units

Next, she discussed the APUs, starting with the second generation A-series (Trinity), which will add better graphics and can work in a variety of form factors. Compared with the previous generation, known as Llano, it offers twice the performance per watt, up to 29 percent better CPU performance, and 56 percent better graphics.

The E-series processors offers up to 12 hours of battery life, which is considerably better battery life than the Intel equivalent, and she showed charts with better battery life than Intel's Pentium B940 and Celerona B800. For the A-series, a 17 watt, BGA version of Trinity allows up to ten hours of battery life.

The demos focused on graphics and video and how AMD's graphics features allow for better performance than Intel's integrated graphics in its new Ivy Bridge systems. Su showed AMD's Steady Video feature for removing jitters in video, and then AMD's John Taylor showed a comparison of the Dirt driving game, running far better on an AMD A10-based system compared with an Intel Ivy Bridge system.

Su said the company has twice as many software developers committed to optimizing its programs for the AMD processor than a year ago, highlighting VLC Player and WinZip. A demo showed Adobe Photoshop CS 6 using Open GL-accelerated filters much faster on an A10 powered desktop than on a Core i7 Ivy Bridge one. Another demo showed MotionDSP's vReveal using GPU acceleration to improve the appearance of a video.

Steven Guggenheimer, Microsoft's corporate vice president in charge of OEM relationships, spoke about how the company has worked with AMD on supporting APUs and on Windows 8.

AMD wants to allow for a range of systems, not limited by specific specifications (a knock on Intel's rigid Ultrabook definition), and Su said it allows a wider range of systems, from the only quad-core ultrathin notebooks to very slim designs. She also showed off one hybrid design, including a Compal 20mm-thin notebook with an 11.6-inch display where the keyboard detaches to turn it into a Windows 8 tablet.

AMD CEO Rory Read addressed the cloud, giving an animated speech in which he held up the A-series chip and called it "one beautiful chip." Read spoke on how the company's partners are driving innovation. As he did at the company's recent analyst day, he talked about the importance of consumerization, cloud computing, and convergence.

Above: AMD CEO Rory Read

APUs are the difference for AMD. Read said the Brazos line sold 30 million units in the first year, making it the company's most successful product ever. He focused on "the next two billion customers," who will want the best video, gaming, and mobility. "We don't want to follow," he said, but instead, the company wants to partner with innovative companies that want to change the future.

Rather than showcasing individual products, Read introduced a "form factor parade," showing notebooks from Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba. Some of these looked quite thin, while others were a bit thicker, but as group, they were designed to showcase the breadth of systems available.

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